Vesuvius (Mature) Poem by James Andrews

Seemed it was no accident
The smell of sulphur
Riding hard upon the brakes
Descending from the parkway

Strange, the light was moving down
Signaling in broad rays
Shattered through the branches,
Weeping cherries beckoning.

It was the time of year
We rolled the windows down,
Smelled the taste of limbs,
Leaves in flame and orange.
The light itself had fragrance.

For miles your long-nailed hand
Had stroked, caressed my thigh.
We rode so high
Full scale upon escape.

The car was moving opposite
Temptation north
Obligation south
I had no sense of where we'd land.

Descending into twilight
Into fall, the seasons in their burning,
Came to rest and formed together
In an innocence

We looked out on a garden withering,
Held out against a long, slow moon.
A storm came up and lightning flashed.
You came undressed.

I had thought that all my shyness was behind me
But then I felt the contours and the temperatures
Remembered and again remembered.

Is it so she understands
But doesn't know?
Or knows but doesn't see.
Or knows that she has built this place
And oh, it feels so much like home.